Identity Theft Punishment

ID theft, although by no means a new crime, increased dramatically with the arrival of the Internet, credit cards, electronic banking and easier access to credit.

What a wonderful age it is that we live in. You can check your bank statement, or take out a loan, right from your home computer. You can order goods, book a flight or pay a debt without leaving home. If you are out and about and you need cash, you can get it from a hole in the wall. Marvelous.

All these marvels of convenience do have a dark side though. They all give criminals more opportunity to commit fraud in your name. All they need is a few items of your personal information.

Do these fraudsters get caught and punished?

Yes they do, maybe they don't get caught often enough or fast enough, but they do get caught.

These days they get their deserved punishment too, but that was not always the case. Until comparatively recently, the crime of identity theft was hardly recognized and identity theft punishment was almost non existent.

We can take a look at some of these recent identity theft laws and how they relate to identity theft punishment.

Then we can ask if punishing the fraudsters harshly deters them from committing ID theft again. More importantly, we can think about what we can do to prevent this crime.

This act, passed in Oct 1998, makes a Federal Crime of knowingly using or transferring, without lawful authority, another persons means of identification with intention of committing, or aiding in committing, unlawful activity constituting a violation of federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable state or local law.

The identity theft and assumption deterrence act defines a means of identification as, a name, credit card number, social security number, date of birth, taxpayer identification number, or in fact, any item of information, either used alone or used in combination with other items of information to identify an individual.

Identity theft punishment is very necessary. When fraudsters get caught, they deserve to be taught a lesson.

The legislation defines any individual whose identity has been stolen as a true victim of ID theft.

It makes the crime punishable ( in most circumstances) with a prison sentence of up to 15 years maximum and a $250,000 maximum fine. And a good thing too.

The act also charged the F.T.C. with the responsibility to acknowledge the receipt of complaints by individual victims, assist individual victims and educate victims and potential victims about identity theft.

The identity theft and assumption deterrence act may function as a guide for individual states similar identity theft punishment and laws. NCSL Identity Theft State Statutes. So your state may have some differences in the penalties for ID theft, but should not stray too far from the act.

This 2004 act states that anyone engaging in a specified felony while using, transferring, or even just in possession of the identity of another individual, the identity theft punishment shall be a jail sentence of two years. The two years is in addition to any jail time given for the federal crime.

When the federal crime is a terrorist act, either international or domestic, the additional sentence shall be five years.

The act specifies that the two prison sentences cannot be served concurrently, that is served at the same time. The identity thief must serve the primary sentence and then the additional sentence.

Having your identity stolen can cost you plenty. It can cost you plenty of your time chasing around trying to rectify the damage done by an identity thief. It can also cost you a lot of cash to clear your name and restore your credit rating.

The identity theft enforcement and restitution act demands that when someone convicted of ID theft is ordered by the court to pay restitution, the victim will receive some of that money to compensate for the time and trouble arising from the actions of the criminal.

The act also permits federal courts to punish the fraudster when they live in the same state as their victim. Previously federal courts could only prosecute if the identity thief accessed the victim's computer from another state.

These changes and a few other amendments to the law brought about by the act, means that identity theft punishment now has more clout, and that can only be a good thing.

It was once the custom in some parts of the world to cut of the hand of a thief to prevent him stealing again. It is very possible that some resourceful thieves found ways and means to carry on with their crimes without their hand.

It is now the norm to jail an identity thief, a consequence of which is that while incarcerated he will not be able to commit identity crime. That is the theory anyway . . . but incredibly it has been reported that one inmate, on ID theft charges, was able to carry on his operation by phone whilst in jail!

As well as denying the thief his, or her liberty, it is hoped that a stretch in jail will act as a deterrent. Not only to deter the criminal from resuming his wicked ways upon release, but to deter others from attempting the crime.

Does it work? Well, there are monumental amounts of money to be made from identity fraud. That must be a major incentive, not only for individual thieves, but also for identity theft gangs and networks.

As well as denying the thief his, or her liberty, it is hoped that a stretch in jail will act as a deterrent.

Then there is the remoteness of the crime. Some identity fraudsters are able to operate from far afield, often from overseas.

Those that steal your identity from your computer for example, do not get physically seen. They feel safe. Perhaps they feel out of the reach of the law and that, no mater what the identity theft punishment is, the risk for them being caught is small.

Then there is the ego of the perpetrator.

Many identity thieves are very smart. As new, robust measures are put in place to prevent ID theft, the fraudsters set to work to develop ways to circumvent those security measures. If they succeed it is a boost to their ego. Even severe identity theft punishment may be insufficient deterrent.

Of course identity fraudsters are very often caught and made to pay the penalty for their crimes. Also there can be no doubt that the increased penalties for identity theft have made more than a few criminals think twice.

If you have been a victim and the identity thief was caught, it is likely that whatever punishment he received didn't satisfy you.

This is understandable. He made your life a mess and it cost you much time and effort to get that mess sorted out.

But what a wonderful outcome, the culprit has been caught. He or she deserves punishing. The crook has, after all, been pretending to be you and ruining that good credit record that you have established over the years.

You can't wait for sentencing. What's the swine going to get? Ten years with a big mountain of rocks to break? A dark, damp and dirty cramped dungeon? A bread and water diet plan? Thumbscrews, the rack?

No, but he is very likely to get jail time and now that the penalties for identity theft are more severe, that jail time can be a long stretch.

Identity theft punishment is very necessary. When fraudsters get caught, they deserve to be taught a lesson.

However the plain fact is – prevention is better than punishment.

It is better that we all do everything that we can to prevent identity theft from happening to us. If we become victims, it is sweet if the perpetrators are brought to justice and punished accordingly. It is sweeter if we receive a measure of restitution for all the pain, hassle and financial loss that we suffered.

How much better though, not to have our identities stolen in the first place.

We may not be able to completely eliminate the risk, but there is a heck of a lot we can do. We can be very careful about what personal information we revel and to who we reveal it to. We should be careful about how we store and dispose of, any documents that contain our personal details.

By being wary of unsolicited phone calls from strangers, we can take care not to disclose information that could be used to steal our identity. Phone Scams.

By being aware that danger can lurk within emails, particularly unsolicited emails, and knowing the signs to look for, we can prevent falling victim to a phishing scam.

We can take great care online. We can ensure that we have up to date virus protection and a robust firewall. We can be careful about what we download and about which sites we visit. We can ensure that we always use secure passwords.

Yes, by doing all of the above and more, we can greatly reduce the risk of identity fraud, better by far than the harshest identity theft punishment.

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Related Information.

Identity Theft Facts.
Your Child's Identity Is At Risk!
Your Credit Card And Identity Fraud At The Gas Pump.
The Dangers Of Internet Dating.
Medical Identity Theft.